Abstract: Social perceptions of faces refer to the process in which people perceive others’ social characteristics (e.g., personality) based on their face information. Facial expression plays a key role in social perceptions of faces. The local features and structural information are the main factors affecting social perceptions of faces. Facial expression can also impact social perceptions of faces by eliciting the perceivers’ emotion and their behavioral tendency. In daily life, facial expressions are very complicated. For example, there might be mixture of multiple expressions, as well as fake expressions; on the other hand, social perceptions of faces are of great subjectivity. Further studies should expand the types of facial expression, and take the perceivers’ characteristics into account.

Key words: face, social perception, facial expression